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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The Marrow Miners & Mirayda of the Five Cask Clan (GM Knowledge)

Note: this post includes *excessive* 'secret' information about Salt in Wounds. GMs welcome. If you ever plan on *playing* in a Salt in Wounds game you might want to skip this post.

In order to understand the Marrow Miners, it is important to
first understand the character and motivations of Mirayda of the Five Cask Clan as her philosophy and goals
shape everything about the organization.

The Marrow Miners were founded two decades ago by Mirayda of the Five Cask Clan, a female
dwarf and former God-Butcher who failed (spectacularly) during the Rite of
Mutual Recognition. When she faced off against the
Tarrasque and saw the spark of destruction there, Mirayda flew into a berserk rage,
stabbing at its eye over and over again trying to end its life in contradiction
of all sense and all her training as a God-Butcher. She had to be restrained by
half a dozen other God-Butchers. Before any could debrief her, she launched
into a tirade about how the beast must be slain –permanently- and that all of
the God-Butchers’ considerable resources should be reassigned to discovering,
inventing or otherwise implementing a plan to end the threat of the beast once
and for all.

None of the Master God-Butchers would listen to her plea,
each speaking of the importance of the Tarrasque to the city, ensuring her that
they had matters well in hand, and commenting that the original founders had
already proven that it would be impossible to kill the monster. Facing this
response, Mirayda resigned from her position as journeywoman God-Butcher and
began a quest to discover some manner to finally end the threat of the
Tarrasque once and for all.

She spent decades travelling to libraries all around Synoma,
to any civilization that had come into contact with the Tarrasque, searching
for some clue as to how it might ultimately be slain. Unfortunately, she found
only confusion and frustration for years; nearly every account of the creature
was –at best- wildly speculative or –at worst- a virtual font of
misinformation.

Mirayda despaired when she realized that the best
information about the beast was available in the God-Butcher archives (to which
she no longer had access).

Still, she managed to discover some early correspondence
from the first generation of God-Butchers complete with what appeared to be
detailed anatomical records. With a flash of inspiration, Mirayda realized that
the Tarrasque has changed massively since its imprisonment began. At this
point, she knew her answers couldn’t be found in the past but that they would
need to be invented through directly working on the Tarrasque as it exists
today.

During the long journey back to Salt in Wounds, Mirayda
agonized over how she’d once again rejoin the God-Butchers after her disgrace
and while attempting to keep her aims and motivations secret. She arrived home
during the 12th Merdian Crisis and so was provided a different path.

Mirayda threw herself into Tail Stones relief efforts,
reintroducing herself to much of the city (most especially its poor). When Tolviko Marcellun staged
his coup and seized control of 12th House, Mirayda approached the
young Binder-Lord with an offer worthy of his brashness: she would found a new
organization that would take over the 12th Meridian extraction
contract from the God-Butchers who had were recontracted every year as a matter
of course, an outcome so expected that many had forgotten that this was a privileged
that could be changed. In exchange for this unprecedented move- the ‘Marrow
Miners’ would pay fees far in excess of any usually paid by the God-Butchers in
addition to providing smuggled reagents which had previously been unavailable
to 12th House.

Tolviko took the deal, and Mirayda of the Five Cask Clan
founded the Marrow Miners.

In the two decades since, the Marrow Miners have grown
immensely. While none of the other Meridian Houses have defected from the ancestral
God-Butcher contracts, Mirayda continues to petition and her argument (and the
wealth she generates for 12th House) grows more convincing every
day. Despite only having the contract
for a single meridian the Marrow Miners are already roughly a quarter of the
size of the God-Butchers (in terms of individuals employed, if not by wealth,
production of influence). Mirayda has ignored assumptions about the racial
hatred of dwarves to actively recruit Orcs, Mites, and other monstrous races
(who die by the hundreds in the pursuit of extraction). Employing advanced
‘strip mining’ like techniques (in addition to having much lower standards for
employees than the heavily ritualized God-Butchers) the Marrow Miners have
managed to exceed all expectations as to their potential, regularly cutting
down to tail bone.

Unbeknownst to most, the Marrow Miners possesses advanced
techniques to temporarily overwhelm the Tarrasque’s regenerative abilities and
are able to quickly cut deep tunnels into the beast. With these secret (and
extremely temporary) channels (usually dug at night when God-Butcher activity is
lessened) the Marrow Miners: 1) Gain access to rare glandular & organ cuts
and 2) Produce more accurate information regarding the Tarrasque’s shifting
physiology... information that Mirayda believes will one day allow her to finally
slay the Tarrasque.

Mirayda is one of five individuals who suspect that the
Tarrasque is pregnant and will give live birth within the next year; an event
she is actively anticipating as she hopes the capture a young ‘Tarrasquelet’
and experiment on it to gain a better understanding of its progenitor.

The Marrow Miners (and their 12th House sponsors)
regularly deal with the various gangs, criminal organizations, and corrupt
Blood-Merchants; selling off their illegally harvested Tarrasque viscera. Mirayda
and her trusted lieutenants are also huge importers of rare & custom
poisons which they test in bulk against the Tarrasque, always searching for any
that will improve their efforts at ever greater extraction or prove promising
in taking the Tarrasque’s life (although if Tolviko Marcellum, or most of the
organization knew that was Mirayda’s ultimate goal they would expose her, see
her tried by the stage-courts and reorganize the leadership of the Marrow
Miners).

Mirayda meets secretly (and in disguise) with a dozen like
minded individuals to discuss what she’s learned and is the current unofficial leader
of (nearly extinct) and almost wholly disorganized faction of Enders.

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